Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Lantana camara cultivar Robmornvan.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lantana plant, botanically known as Lantana camara, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Robmornvan.
The new Lantana is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Grain Valley, Mo. The objective of the breeding program is to create mounded and moderately vigorous Lantanas that are freely flowering.
The new Lantana originated from a self-pollination made by the Inventor in 1998 of an unnamed proprietary Lantana seedling, not patented. The new Lantana was selected as a single plant from the resulting progeny of the self-pollination by the Inventor in a controlled environment in 1999 in Grain Valley, Mo.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings in Grain Valley, Mo. since 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Lantana are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Robmornvan have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment and culture such as temperature, light intensity and daylength without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Robmornvanxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Robmornvanxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Outwardly spreading and mounding plant habit.
2. Freely branching habit, dense and bushy appearance.
3. Freely flowering habit.
4. Flowers that are initially light yellow in color, then becoming creamy white with golden yellow-colored throats.
Plants of the new Lantana can be compared to plants of the parent selection. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Grain Valley, Mo., plants of the new Lantana differed from plants of the parent selection in the following characteristics:
1. Cuttings of plants of the new Lantana rooted faster than cuttings of plants of the parent selection.
2. Plants of the new Lantana grew more vigorously than plants of the parent selection.
3. Plants of the new Lantana had a higher flower to leaf ratio than plants of the parent selection.
4. Flowers of plants of the parent selection were whiter in color than flowers of plants of the new Lantana.
Plants of the new Lantana can be compared to plants of the cultivar Robpatdov, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,882. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Grain Valley, Mo., plants of the new Lantana differed from plants of the cultivar Robpatdov in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Lantana were more mounded than plants of the cultivar Robpatdov.
2. Plants of the new Lantana had larger and darker green-colored leaves than plants of the cultivar Robpatdov.
3. Flowers of plants of the cultivar Robpatdov were whiter in color than flowers of plants of the new Lantana.